re-inclusion

February 18, 2002

Amy,

My verbal apraxic ds has been in a regular pre-school class for the last 1 1/2

years and it is great. At first I was real worried because he started at 2.10

so he could begin at the school year beginning. I was afraid with being younger

as well as speech delayed he would not fit in but that was not the case.

Although he gets pulled out of class for therapy the ST last year also came in a

2nd time and would work with the whole class on beginning sounds. The teacher

was disapointed to find that because of my sons improvement the ST would not be

having the 2nd session this year. The teachers also taught all the kids signs

so my son would not be isolated. My son never picked up that many signs but

many of the other kids still like to sign this year. They also do their goodbye

song in English, Spanish and sign language. Each day the helper child of the

day decides which way to sing it. My older son also has a mentally disabled boy

in his class. The boy does as much as possible with the class, and goes to

special ed for the rest. The boy seems happy and it has been a good experience

for my son and his classmates. In fairness I think our school does an

exceptional job in making inclusion work. I have a fiend with a apraxic ds in

another school and she has had less positive experiences. ie teachers not

wanting to learn sign language and by the time they did get around to learning

it her son was talking but they insisted on seperating him from classmates to

sign with him anyway. I made it very clear in the first iep meeting that if the

pre-school wasn't right for him I would take him out. Like any pre-school you

should visit frequently and unexpectedly to see if it's working for your child.

Dawn

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